1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of computers, and more particularly to relational databases. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to controlling access to a relational database through the use of reusable entitlement tables.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the database management arena, entitlements (“authorized access to”) to data are built into a database management system are at the table level (or view). That is, each table in a relational database must have its own set of rules for entitlement, thus requiring a new set of rules for each table that must be built into complex views. This condition is cumbersome, since the rules of entitlement are not scalable and have to be rebuilt for every table. (For purposes of the present disclosure, the term “table” will be used to describe a view of structured data in a relational database.)